ORNAMENTAL DOORS,INC

　　Ornamental Doors, Inc. (ODI) is a company that manufactures doors and window coverings. The name is misleading in that the company specializes in doors, window shutters, and other window coverings that can withstand severe weather. Most ODI customers buy their products as protection from high wind damage. The company sells its products throughout Central and North America and has the reputation for manufacturing products of very high quality at a fair price.
　　 ODI has been successful and profitable over the course of its 22 years of operations. A key to its success has been the ability of the owner, Jay Fiske, to understand the effects of high winds and wind-driven water on the doors and windows of homes. Fiske started ODI himself after working ten years as a home builder on the coastal areas of North Carolina. Fiske has worked with builder associations and individual contractors ever since the company began.　
　　 ODI employs 320 manufacturing employees, supported by 180 administrative staff members. The staff consists almost entirely of managers and professionals. This may sound like a high percentage of staff. It is the result of the manufacturing process being highly computerized. Ornamental Doors sold more than 180,000 doors and 1,660,000 window coverings last year. The typical sale includes ten or more doors and almost 100 windows.
　　 Two key factors of profitability are anticipation of demand and close coordination with suppliers to keep the manufacturing process up to speed. Because ODI believes in establishing trusted business relationships, there are fewer than 100 suppliers; it does not simply purchase the least expensive raw material. The raw materials are basics. Ornamental Doors truly manufactures its products; it does not assemble the products from prefabricated parts acquired from suppliers. Another key factor to ODI’s success is attracting and retaining a highly skilled workforce on the manufacturing floor. Because most of the manufacturing process is computerized, it is important for manufacturing workers at Ornamental Doors to have higher skill levels than most of the company’s competitors.
　　 The efficiency of administrative operations has never been a high priority at Ornamental Doors. The profit margins have always been great enough and demand has been high enough-even during periods of low construction activity-that if Fiske paid attention to the manufacturing process the rest of the problems would take care of themselves. But now Fiske is considering retiring in the next five years and he wishes to make Ornamental Doors as financially attractive as possible to a buyer. One “buyer” may be a group of current employees that wishes to purchase the business.
　　 Fiske has observed that several of his competitors have committed to enterprise information systems or are in the planning stages of such systems. Only one competitor has completed the project and Fiske has not noticed any change in its sales or its market share (these figures agencies). However, the stock price of the competitor rose almost 2 percent when it announced it would implement an enterprise information system. Since the successful implementation, the stock price has risen another 4percent. Fiske feels that an enterprise information system could also raise the value of Ornamental Doors to potential buyers.

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